How Much Home Loan Can You Get on Your Salary?

21 July 2026 · 5 min read

Before you fall in love with a flat, there is one number that decides which flats you are even allowed to fall in love with: how much a bank will actually lend you. It is the first real question of every home purchase — and the honest answer has almost nothing to do with the price of the house and almost everything to do with your monthly salary slip.

Lenders don't fund your ambition; they fund your repayment capacity. There is a simple rule they use to size it, and once you know it you can estimate your own eligibility in about ten seconds — then fine-tune it in our Home Loan Eligibility Calculator, which every figure below is drawn from.

The quick rule of thumb: about 55× your monthly income

At a typical home-loan rate of 9% over a 20-year term, with no other loans running, your eligibility works out to roughly 55 times your net monthly income. That single multiplier gets you surprisingly close before you touch a calculator:

The multiplier isn't magic — it just falls out of the maths below. Change the rate, tenure or your existing loans and it moves, but "55× take-home" is a reliable back-of-envelope anchor for a first look.

How the FOIR method actually works

The rule lenders apply is the FOIR — Fixed Obligation to Income Ratio: the share of your monthly income that all your EMIs put together are allowed to consume. Most banks cap it at 40–55%, with higher earners given the upper end. The calculation runs in two steps:

1. Affordable EMI = (net monthly income × FOIR%) − your existing EMIs.
2. That EMI is converted into a loan amount using the standard reducing-balance formula for your rate and tenure — the same engine behind our home loan EMI calculator.

One trap to avoid: FOIR is measured against your net (in-hand) income, not your CTC. If you only know your annual CTC, convert it to a realistic take-home figure first in the Salary Calculator — using the gross number will flatter your eligibility and set you up for a rejection.

Your existing EMIs quietly shrink the number

Because FOIR covers all your EMIs, any loan you already run is subtracted straight off the top before the home loan is even considered. This is where most people's eligibility silently collapses. Same ₹1,00,000 income, same 9% over 20 years — watch what a running loan does:

Read the second row: a single ₹15,000 car EMI knocks ₹16.7 lakh off your home-loan eligibility. If you're a few months from applying, clearing a small personal loan or car loan first can do more for your borrowing power than a raise would.

Longer tenure buys eligibility — at a brutal interest cost

The fastest way to "qualify for more" is to stretch the tenure: a longer term means a smaller EMI for the same loan, so your fixed EMI budget stretches over a bigger principal. But the extra eligibility you unlock is small, and the extra interest you pay is enormous. Here is the same ₹50,000 EMI budget across different tenures at 9%:

Going from a 20-year loan to a 30-year one raises your eligibility by just ₹6.5 lakh (₹55.6 → ₹62.1 lakh) — but nearly doubles the interest, from ₹64.4 lakh to ₹1.18 crore. You are borrowing a little more and paying a fortune for the privilege. Stretch the tenure only if you genuinely need the extra headroom to buy the home, and plan to prepay later — see the maths in our home loan prepayment playbook.

Eligible is not the same as affordable — or sanctioned

Two reality checks stand between the eligibility number and the keys:

• Eligible ≠ affordable. A 50% FOIR means half your take-home vanishes into one EMI, before groceries, school fees, SIPs or a single emergency. The bank's maximum is a ceiling, not a target — borrow the amount you can repay while still sleeping at night, not the largest the formula allows.
• Eligible ≠ sanctioned. Lenders also cap the loan at a Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio, funding only about 75–90% of the property's value. So you must bring a down payment of 10–25% from your own pocket, and the amount actually sanctioned is the lower of your income-based eligibility and the LTV limit.

How to get approved for more — the right way

• Add a co-applicant. Combining a spouse's or parent's income raises the FOIR budget and can lift the sanctioned amount substantially — often the single biggest lever.
• Clear existing EMIs first. As the table above shows, every ₹1,000 of existing EMI cleared frees up roughly ₹1.1 lakh of home-loan headroom.
• Protect your credit score. A score above 750 improves both approval odds and the rate you're offered — and a lower rate directly raises eligibility. At 8.5% instead of 10%, the same ₹50,000 EMI supports ₹57.6 lakh rather than ₹51.8 lakh, a ₹5.8 lakh swing.
• Include eligible variable pay. Many lenders count a portion of consistent bonuses, incentives or rental income — ask what documentation lets you add them.

Bottom line

As a first estimate, a bank will lend you roughly 55 times your net monthly income for a home — about ₹55 lakh on a ₹1 lakh take-home — assuming no other loans, a 9% rate and a 20-year term. Existing EMIs cut it fast, a longer tenure buys a little more at a punishing interest cost, and the amount you actually get is capped again by the property's value. Start with your own numbers in the Home Loan Eligibility Calculator, then, once you have a target loan, model the real EMI and full repayment schedule in the Home Loan EMI Calculator before you sign anything. The best home loan is not the biggest one you qualify for — it's the one you'll barely notice repaying.